While major Big Box retailers have struggled to keep pace with consumer-driven demands for instant gratification, Sears Holdings has come up with new innovations to anticipate and serve shoppers with a new one-day ground delivery service supported by a dynamic DC network.

When an industry is changing rapidly, companies must adapt in order to survive. In this whitepaper, a global publisher was seeking a partner that could mitigate risk and build a platform flexible enough for their shifting customer expectations. The solution enabled the company to rewrite their operations game plan and transform their supply chain.

Join our panel of leading economic and transportation analysts as they share their exclusive insight on where rates are headed and the issues that will be driving those rate increases over the next 12 months.

With a 3.1 cent increase, the average price currently stands at $3.904 per gallon, which follows a cumulative decline of 3.7 over the last two weeks, when prices fell 1.3 cents and 2.4 cents, respectively. Those two weeks of declines were preceded by three weeks of gains for a cumulative 3.9 cents. And those gains were preceded by two weeks of declines for a cumulative 1.2 cent drop during the weeks of December 9 and December 17. On an annual basis, the average price per diesel is down 2.3 cents.

This week’s diesel average is the highest since January 6, when it was at $3.91 per gallon.

In its recent update of the short-term energy outlook, the EIA expects the average price of diesel for 2013 to be $3.92 per gallon, below 2012’s $3.97. For 2014, it expects the average price to be 3.77 per gallon.

Oil barrel prices headed up to $97.03 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to an Associated Press report. The report said gains were tempered by the prospect of a further reduction in U.S. central bank stimulus and stock market headwinds.

And the International Energy Agency recently stated in a report that the U.S. will pass Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer by 2015, coupled with being close to energy self-sufficient in the next two decades, as well as gains from shale formation output, too, according to a Bloomberg report.

The report added that crude prices will head up to $128 per barrel by 2035.

Logistics Management oil and gas columnist Derik Andreoli recently observed that on the diesel side, oil production in the U.S. and Iraq continues to grow rapidly while emerging market demand will continue its lackluster performance.

Regardless of the fluctuation in diesel prices, shippers are cognizant of the impact diesel prices can have on their bottom line—for better or worse.

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When an industry is changing rapidly, companies must adapt in order to survive. In this whitepaper, a global publisher was seeking a partner that could mitigate risk and build a platform flexible enough for their shifting customer expectations. The solution enabled the company to rewrite their operations game plan and transform their supply chain.

While it is already reaping myriad benefits from ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation), a proprietary routing platform for its drivers rolled out in late 2013, transportation and logistics bellwether UPS announced big plans for the technology this week.